Friday, July 13, 2007

Like most authors, I seek every opportunity I can to talk about my books and the writing process in general. And, like most every author, I know that at these events I’ll inevitably be asked The Question.

“Where do you get your ideas?”

We get asked this question so many times that some authors have come up with witty responses they always use: “I buy them in bulk from K-Mart”, “Online, same place I get my porn”, “I just go out and kill people and take really good notes.” Others say something like, “No idea” or “If you find out let me know,” and I’ll admit, I’ve used a few of these over the years myself. We get asked it so many times that we forget that it’s a real question, that the person who asked it is truly curious how our little minds work. While this might prove to be impossible, here’s how I believe I develop my ideas.

I start with a basic broad idea, say a mystery set in India, and from there I make a mental list of all the things that could go in that frame. I know, that’s huge, but since I focus on adventure mysteries (as opposed to whodunits) and my protagonists are average Joes, I’m already narrowing down the list. And since I don’t do politics, mention nuclear weapons, involve CIA/MI5/Black Ops plot lines or write historical mysteries, I cut that list even further. And since I like to keep my stories on the move, I know that I’ll be taking in many locations at a rapid pace. When you consider that all that is done subconsciously as I create my mental list, that list can get focused rather quickly.

Take Nobel Lies, the book that will be published in September. Since my first visit to Thailand, I knew that it would be a great setting for a fast-paced adventure and I had been forming plot lines in my head for years. Then the 2004 tsunami hit. Phi Phi Island, our favorite Thai vacation spot, was leveled and scores of people we had come to know were killed. I knew I couldn’t write any story about the Thailand I knew without the tsunami. Give the size of the disaster (and the relative insignificance of any adventure I would tie to it) I saw three possible directions – the adventure ending with the tsunami, the adventure starting with the tsunami or the adventure taking place after the tsunami.

Ending with the tsunami was out for me – no matter what I tried to write I wouldn’t be able to capture the terror of the real event. That’s not a knock on me; no writer can. And I know I didn’t want to start with the tsunami since my fictitious story would pale compared to the reality that would have to be all around. So that left me with a post-tsunami adventure.

I traveled to Thailand for the one-year anniversary of the event and I saw that it had recovered enough to seem ‘normal’ but there were scars all around to remind what had happened. So, the story would take place one year or more after the tsunami.

As for the plot, I knew it wouldn’t be murder. With 230,000 killed as a result of the tsunami, I felt I couldn’t work up enough interest in one more death. Yeah, that’s the job of an author and it can be done, but not by me. I guess I knew too many who died on Phi Phi to add to the carnage. (That said, I did rack up an impressive body count in the final product, but I didn’t know that when I started.) So how about someone missing? Approximately 40,000 people still remain unaccounted for. And what if you were looking for just one of those people?

My next list ran down reasons why that person hadn’t come forward on his/her own – amnesia, they were being held against their will, they didn’t want to be found…hmmm…not wanting to be found. Why not? And what if you found them, then what?

It goes on like this for months, making mental lists, creating possible roads – most all with dead-ends – until a story develops. Okay, so it’s nothing shocking here, no exciting revelations, but that’s how I believe I develop my ideas.

And I say believe since I may have simply convinced myself that this is how I do it.

Rick Blechta writes on Tuesdays

Barbara Fradkin writes on alternate Wednesdays

Sybil Johnson writes on Alternate Wednesdays

John Corrigan writes on alternate Thursdays

Donis Casey writes on alternate Thursdays

Charlotte Hinger writes on alternate Fridays

Frankie Bailey writes on Alternate Fridays

Vicki Delany writes on the second weekend of every month

Mario Acevedo writes on the 4th Saturday of each month

Aline Templeton

Aline Templeton lives in Edinburgh in a house with a balcony overlooking the beautiful city skyline. Her series featuring DI Marjory Fleming is set in beautiful Galloway, in South-west Scotland. alinetempleton.co.uk

Marianne Wheelaghan

Marianne is from Edinburgh. She left home at seventeen. After a heap of travelling, which included living in Kiribati, the third most remote country in the world, she ended back in Edinburgh where she still lives very happily. Her crime mysteries feature DS Louisa Townsend, The Scottish Lady Detective, and are mostly set in the Pacific. Read more about Marianne and her books on her blog: www.mariannewheelaghan.co.uk and at @MWheelaghan

Rick Blechta

Rick has two passions in life, mysteries and music, and his thrillers contain liberal doses of both. He has two upcoming releases, Roses for a Diva, his sequel to The Fallen One, for Dundurn Press, and for Orca’s Rapid Reads series, The Boom Room, a second book featuring detectives Pratt & Ellis. You can learn more about what he’s up to at www.rickblechta.com. From the musical side, Rick leads a classic soul band in Toronto. Check out SOULidifiedband.com. And lastly, being a former line cook with an interest in all things culinary, he has a blog dedicated to food: A Man for All Seasonings.

Barbara Fradkin

Barbara Fradkin is a retired psychologist with a fascination for how we turn bad. Her dark short stories haunt the Ladies Killing Circle anthologies, but she is best known for her award-winning series featuring the quixotic, exasperating Ottawa Police Inspector Michael Green, published by Dundurn Press. The ninth book, The Whisper of Legends, was published in April 2013. Visit Barbara at barbarafradkin.com.

Sybil Johnson

Sybil Johnson’s love affair with reading began in kindergarten with “The Three Little Pigs.” Visits to the library introduced her to Encyclopedia Brown, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle and a host of other characters. Fast forward to college where she continued reading while studying Computer Science. After a rewarding career in the computer industry, Sybil decided to try her hand at writing mysteries. Her short fiction has appeared in Mysterical-E and Spinetingler Magazine, among others. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, she now lives in Southern California where she enjoys tole painting, studying ancient languages and spending time with friends and family. Find her at www.authorsybiljohnson.com.

John R Corrigan

John R. Corrigan is D.A. Keeley, author of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agent Peyton Cote series, which is set along the Maine-Canada border. Bitter Crossing (summer 2014) will be the first of at least three novels in the series. Born in Augusta, Maine, he lives with his wife and three daughters at Northfield Mount Hermon School in western Massachusetts, where he is English department chair, a teacher, a hockey coach, and may very well be the only mystery writer in North America who also serves as a dorm parent to 50 teenage girls. A Mainer through and through, he tries to get to Old Orchard Beach, Maine, as often as possible. You can see what he's up to by visiting www.amazon.com/author/DAKeeley or dakeeleyauthor.blogspot.com or on Twitter (@DAKeeleyAuthor).

Donis Casey

Donis is the author of six Alafair Tucker Mysteries. Her award-winning series, featuring the sleuthing mother of ten children, is set in Oklahoma during the booming 1910s. Donis is a former teacher, academic librarian, and entrepreneur. She lives in Tempe, AZ, with her husband, poet Donald Koozer. The latest Alafair Tucker novel, The Wrong Hill to Die On (Poisoned Pen Press, 2012), is available in paper or electronic format wherever books are sold. Readers can enjoy the first chapter of each book on her web site at www.doniscasey.com.

Frankie Bailey

Frankie Y. Bailey is a criminal justice professor who focuses on crime, history, and American culture. Her current project is a book about dress, appearance, and criminal justice. Her mystery series featuring crime historian Lizzie Stuart is set mainly in the South. Her near-future police procedural series featuring Detective Hannah McCabe is set in Albany, New York. Visit Frankie at frankieybailey.com.

Charlotte Hinger

Charlotte Hinger is a novelist and Western Kansas historian. Convinced that mystery writing and historical investigation go hand in hand, she now applies her MA in history to academic articles and her depraved imagination to the Lottie Albright series for Poisoned Pen Press. charlottehinger.com

Vicki Delany/Eva Gates

Vicki Delany is one of Canada’s most prolific and varied crime writers. She is the author of more than 25 books, including the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop series, the Year Round Christmas cozy series, the Constable Molly Smith books, standalone novels of suspense, the Klondike Gold Rush series, and novellas for adult literacy. As Eva Gates, she is the author of the national bestselling Lighthouse Library cozy series from Penguin. Find Vicki at www.vickidelany.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/evagatesauthor/

Mario Acevedo

Mario Acevedo is the author of the Felix Gomez detective-vampire series. His short fiction is included in the anthologies, You Don’t Have A Clue: Latino Mystery Stories for Teens and Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery, and in Modern Drunkard Magazine. Mario lives with a dog in Denver, CO. His website is marioacevedo.com.